Faisalabad gang-rape case is sheer white lie

LAHORE – A police inquiry has absolved Muhammad Asghar, the main accused in the Faisalabad’s infamous gang-rape case of Samina Bibi. The probe, conducted and completed by DIG Maj (retired) Mubashirullah Khan, has also declared Asghar’s friends as not guilty.

“A few culprits, in connivance with a woman, have incriminated the innocent citizens in a fake case of gang-rape over a property dispute in the Faisalabad region said some professional criminals had staged a drama for the sake of the property,” the DIG wrote in his report.

The one-man inquiry committee has recommended a strict legal action against Samina, Ajmal Bajwa and Ramzan. After the findings of the inquiry report, all those involved in the case are likely to go scoot free.

According to Samina, Asghar and his friends had opened fire on her and others as a result of which she had been injured. However, DIG Mubashir’s report terms the incident “mere fake.”

Not much details of the inquiry report are available at the moment, however, a handout, issued by the spokeswoman of the Punjab IG, has stated that DIG Mubashir, who is currently heading the Chung Police Training School, has established that one Ajmal Bajwa, in connivance with Samina Bibi, had incriminated his rivals, including Muhammad Asghar, in a gang-rape case (658/10), lodged under Section 376 and 365 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) at the D-Type Colony police station of Faisalabad.

Asghar was later sent to jail for 16 months by a court of law, but was granted bail by the Lahore High Court. Bajwa and Samina lodged a second FIR (99/12), under Sections 324/34 of the PPC at the Batala Colony police station of Faisalabad against the Asghar and others, maintaining that Asghar along with his friends had opened fire on them and injured Samina.

The report, according to the police spokeswoman, stated that “a hired criminal [Ramzan alias Jani] had expertly placed two pistol bullets on different parts of Samina’s body by cutting her skin with a sharp-edged weapon.”

“The DIG, however, declared the woman’s wounds as not real and suggested that medical examination should be conducted. Later, the Supreme Court Bench comprising Justice Jawad Adrees Khawaja and Justice Ameer Hani Muslim had also directed Muhammad Siddquie, the father of Samina, to present his daughter in a medical board in Faisalabad,” the spokeswoman told this reporter.

The police spokeswoman, quoting the inquiry report prepared by DIG Mubashir, said that during the ensuing interrogation, Ramzan alias Jani confessed before a Special Magistrate that he was behind the bullets drama. He also endorsed his involvement in all the charges that were levelled against him.